Confessions of a Tourist: While the cat's stuck at home...

An ocean apart from hubby, Maureen Martella was tempted to play in Maryland

MY TRAVEL plan was foolproof. I’d slaved over it for months while my husband worked double shifts in a hotel to help bankroll it. We would rent out our house in Ireland and use that income to explore North America, then buy a camper van and travel down to Mexico, and all points south.

Tierra del Fuego looked interesting on my well-thumbed map. But then, anywhere foreign tends to look interesting when your 30th birthday is closing in fast and you’re threatened with stagnation. Even the prospect of travelling with our four small children didn’t faze me; they had already accompanied us to half the countries in Europe. Now America was calling.

Two days before departure, the rental deal on our house fell apart. Time to draw up plan B. Hubby would stay back with our eldest son and sort our rental problems. I would go ahead with the three